HE 

0455"    B4 


BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


DDRESS  BY 


Dr.  William  A.  Bell 


AT  A  DINNER  GIVEN  TO  THE 
EMPLOYEES  OF  THE  DENVER 
&  RIO  GRANDE  RAILROAD  AT 
THE  UNION  STATION,  DENVER, 
COLORADO,  JANUARY  28,  1920 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/addressbydrwilliOObellrich 


b  S'^'^H 


THE  rapid  development  of  the  United  States  is  largely 
due  to  the  few  men  of  exceptional  ability  who  have 
opened  up  the  country  by  various  systems  of  rail- 
roads. They  may  justly  be  called  empire  builders, 
such  for  instance  as  Henry  Villard  who  founded  the  North  Pa- 
cific Railway  System;  James  J.  Hill,  who  opened  up  the  whole 
North  West;  Mr.  Harriman  in  the  South  with  the  Southern 
Pacific  did  wonderful  work  in  developing  that  region.  With 
these  General  Wm.  J.  Palmer  ranks  as  the  developer  of  southern 
Colorado  by  means  of  the  construction  of  the  Denver  and  Rio 
Grande  Railroad  and  of  much  of  Mexico  by  founding  the  Mexi- 
can National  Railway,  the  early  history  of  which  I  have  the  pleas- 
ure of  describing.  It  is  a  topic  oiF  extreme  interest  and  it  will 
be  my  fault  if  it  does  not  appeal  to  you. 

My  earliest  association  with  General  Palmer  dates  from  the 
Kansas!  Pacific  Survey  of  1867,  an  account  of  which  is  given  in 
a  book  of  travels  called  "New  Tracks  in  North  America,"  which 
I  published  in  England  in  1869.  It  ^^Y  be  found  in  the  Denver 
Public  Library  and  the  Colorado  State  Museum. 

On  that  survey  we  shared  the  same  tent  for  many  months 
and  over  the  camp  fire  we  discussed  his  plans.  The  Kansas  Pa- 
cific Railway,  a  St.  Louis  company  with  John  D.  Perry  as  its 
head,  had  then  reached  Salina,  Kansas,  and,  from  his  knowledge 
of  the  country,  General  Palmer  endeavored  to  persuade  his  co- 
directors  to  change  the  route  they  had  then  determined  on,  to 
reach  Denver  by  the  Smoky  Hill  route, — the  way  the  road  now 
follows, — and  instead  of  doing  this  to  follow  up  the  Arkansas  to 
Pueblo,  and  thence  north  to  Denver,  thus  occupying  the  valley 
of  the  Arkansas  as  well  as  the  mountain  base  from  Pueblo  to 
Denver. 

General  Palmer's  project  was  this,  that,  if  he  could  not  per- 
suade his  directors  to  follow  up  the  Arkansas,  he  would  build  a 
road  of  his  own  from  Denver  southward  indefinitely  along  the 
mountain  base,  of  such  a  character  as  to  reach  the  mines  in  the 
mountains  through  the  caiions  abutting  on  the  plains  as  rapidly 
as  they  were  discovered,  and  so  tap  the  sources  of  business  ahead 
of  all  other  competitors. 

[3] 

H  IF^  ^^  ' 


His  directors  did  not  follow  his  advice,  and  in  consequence, 
when  in  September,  1870,  the  Kansas  Pacific  reached  Denver  and 
the  Denver  Pacific  had  made  connections  at  Cheyenne  with  the 
Union  Pacific  to  the  north  about  the  same  time,  the  General  in- 
corporated his  railroad  in  October  of  that  year.  As  the  then 
existing  laws  of  the  territory  of  Colorado  were  not  altogether 
satisfactory,  application  was  made  to  Congress  for  a  charter 
direct  from  the  United  States  Government,  which  he  obtained 
the  following  year.  This  charter  proved  to  be  very  important. 
It  gave  no  land  grant,  as  land  grants  had  then  ceased  to  be  pop- 
ular, but  it  conveyed  to  the  company  a  right-of-way  200  feet 
wide,  and  twenty  acres  of  the  public  domain  for  depot  purposes, 
limited  to  one  tract  in  ten  miles  of  road.  He  further  developed 
his  scheme  for  the  extension  of  the  road,  not  only  southward  to 
El  Paso,  but  thence  to  the  City  of  Mexico,  following  approxi- 
mately the  line  now  occupied  by  the  Mexican  Central. 

The  work  he  mapped  out  in  1870  was  prodigious.  The  coun- 
try south  of  Denver  was  practically  undeveloped,  with  little 
traffic  on  which  to  base  the  constructon  of  a  railroad.  Realizing 
this,  not  only  had  the  railroad  to  be  constructed,  but  traffic  had 
to  be  created  by  the  laying  out  of  towns,  the  opening  of  coal 
fields  and  iron  mines,  the  starting  of  industries, —  all  of  which 
he  organized  with  the  greatest  energy. 
Gauge  The  question  of  gauge  was  the  first  thing  to  be  determined. 

The  day  after  his  wedding,  on  November  8th,  1870,  he  started 
for  England.  I  met  him  in  London  and  there  we  consulted  the 
great  engineer  Fowler  and  General  Richard  Strachey,  R.E.,  who 
had  introduced  narrow  gauge  railroads  into  India  with  the  metre 
gauge.  We  visited  the  Fastiniog  Railway,  a  two-foot  gauge  road 
in  Wales,  and  we  finally  adopted  a  three-foot  gauge  for  the  new 
enterprise. 

Rails  were  at  once  ordered  from  Wales,  30  pounds  to  the 
yard.  Grading  was  started,  and  by  August,  1871,  the  railroad  was 
completed  to  the  new  town  of  Colorado  Springs,  which  had  in  the 
meantime  been  located  and  laid  out  on  broad  lines,  but  which 
had  but  one  finished  house  on  the  townsite  when  the  railroad 
reached  it. 

Early  the  following  year  the  track  was  finished  to  Pueblo 
and  the  Canon  City  coal  fields.  Hand  in  hand  with  the  railroad 
came  the  opening  up  and  development  of  the  country  through 
which  it  was  to  pass. 

[4] 


To  fully  realize  General  Palmer's  position  at  this  time,  it  is 
well  to  state  that  he  had  associated  with  him  no  large  capitalists, 
and  had,  therefore,  the  serious  problem  of  finance  entirely  on  his 
shoulders.  My  father,  a  distinguished  London  physician,  had 
many  wealthy  clients  amongst  his  patients.  General  Palmer  had 
a  number  of  Philadelphia  friends  and  associates.  From  these  two 
sources  came  the  first  money  to  build  the  road.  These  private 
individuals  were  offered  subscriptions  to  pools,  which  were 
formed  in  the  following  way.  Land  companies  were  formed,  to 
which  the  townsites  along  the  road  were  conveyed,  such  as  Colo- 
rado Springs  and  Manitou,  and  the  stock  of  these  companies 
was  given  to  the  subscribers  with  the  railroad  securities.  In  the 
same  way  the  coal  and  iron  fields  which  were  discovered  further 
south,  and  the  Nolan  grant  of  some  40,000  acres,  covering  the 
land  immediately  south  of  the  Arkansas  River  up  to  the  borders 
of  the  old  Mexican  town  of  Pueblo,  were  conveyed  to  a  company 
called  the  Central  Colorado  Improvement  Company,  incorporated 
January,  1872,  which  company,  when  its  coal  fields  became  de- 
veloped, was  converted  in  December,  1879,  into  the  Colorado 
Coal  and  Iron  Company. 

In  1 88 1  the  Durango  Land  and  Coal  Company  was  incorpor- 
ated. Meanwhile  the  town  of  Durango,  now  the  capital  of  South- 
western Colorado,  was  located  and  started  by  Governor  A.  C. 
Hunt,  and  smelting  works  were  erected  there  a  year  before  the 
arrival  of  the  railway.  The  townsite  and  valuable  coal  prop- 
erties in  the  neighborhood,  as  well  as  at  Crested  Butte,  were 
conveyed  to  this  company.  I  became  its  president  and  have  had 
charge  of  its  affairs  down  to  the  present  time. 

Returning  to  the  beginning  of  things,  in  the  early  seventies, 
I  have  a  little  of  interest  to  relate  about  the  Mexican  end  of  Gen- 
eral Palmer's  great  conception  and  how  his  railways  in  Mexico 
were  started. 

Early  in  '72  I  went  to  San  Francisco  to  arrange  with  General 
Rosecrans  for  the  acquisition  for  General  Palmer  of  valuable  rail- 
road concessions,  which  he  had  obtained  from  Juarez,  the  then 
President  of  the  Mexican  Republic.  And,  having  accomplished 
my  mission,  on  my  return  journey  to  Colorado  I  was  snowed  up 
on  the  Central  Pacific  in  February,  '72,  for  no  less  than  twenty- 
one  days,  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad,  as  it  was  then  called,  hav- 
ing been  only  recently  completed  and  not  in  a  position  to  battle 
successfully  with  the  winter  snows. 

[5] 


Finance 


Pools 


Mexico 
Extension 


real  Prosperity 
1870-73 


Colorado  Coal 
and  Iron 
Company 


Meanwhile,  General  Palmer  went  to  Mexico,  where  General 
Rosecrans  had  gone  to  meet  him,  and  laid  the  foundations  for 
his  railroad  system  in  Mexico,  and  was  back  in  the  United  States 
and  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  by  July  4th,  1872,  where  I  met  him. 
His  trip  through  Mexico  had  been  a  very  arduous  one.  He  was 
accompanied  not  only  by  his  young  wife,  but  also  by  Miss  Rose 
Kingsley,  the  elder  daughter  of  Charles  Kingsley,  the  well-known 
author.  I,  in  the  meantime,  had  married  my  present  wife  in  Eng- 
land, and  she  also  formed  one  of  the  party  on  the  4th  of  July  at 
Richmond. 

The  years  1870  to  1873  were  years  of  great  prosperity  in 
Colorado.  The  four  counties  through  which  the  Denver  and  Rio 
Grande  had  been  built, — Arapahoe,  Douglas,  El  Paso  and  Pueblo, 
— had  an  assessed  value  of  $6,689,000  in  1870,  and  of  $18,600,000 
in  1873.  Mining  was  active  and  the  receipts  of  the  new  railway 
were  entirely  satisfactory.  Immediately  following  this  hopeful 
outlook  came  the  nanic  of  that  year,  which  did  not  seriously 
affect  Colorado  until  '74  and  '75,  but  when  it  reached  the  Rockies 
it  naturally  caused  a  serious  check  to  the  Rio  Grande  enterprise, 
so  that  it  was  not  until  'y6  that  the  railroad  was  pushed  to  the 
coal  fields  of  El  Moro  and  over  La  Veta  Pass  to  Alamosa  as  ter- 
minus for  the  time  being. 

The  importance  to  the  whole  undertaking  of  the  coal  and 
iron  developments  was  realized  from  the  first,  and  in  '74  I  went 
to  London  and  succeeded  in  negotiating  bonds  of  the  Coal  Com- 
pany sufficient  to  push  vigorously  the  coal  and  iron  production 
and  to  start  the  erection  of  the  steel  works  at  Pueblo. 

In  1879  the  Colorado  Coal  &  Iron  Company  was  formed. 
The  first  directors  were  William  J.  Palmer,  Charles  B.  Lambom, 
William  A.  Bell,  Lyman  K.  Bass  and  Hanson  A.  Risley.  In  1880, 
the  South  Pueblo  Iron  Works  having  been  erected,  284  tons  of 
merchant  bar  iron  were  produced.  In  1881,  6396  tons  of  pig  iron 
were  turned  out,  and  on  April  12th  of  the  following  year  the  first 
30- foot  rail  was  rolled.  Mrs.  Bell  and  I  were  present,  and  the 
appearance  of  the  first  rail  was  hailed  with  great  enthusiasm  by 
all  present.  In  that  year  16,265  tons  of  rails  for  the  railroad  were 
rolled. 

In  1884  General  Palmer  retired  from  the  management  of  the 
Colorado  Coal  &  Iron  Company  and  Henry  E.  Sprague  became 
president.  The  year  of  1884  was  one  of  great  depression.  There 
was  a  great  miners'  strike,  from  October,  1884,  to  February, 

[6] 


1885,  and  also  a  railroad  strike.  The  Leadville  smelter  was 
largely  shut  down.  Low  prices  and  business  depression  prevailed. 
Coal  production  was  the  exception,  562,660  tons  having  been 
produced  by  the  company.  The  Colorado  Coal  and  Iron  Com- 
pany continued  to  grow  until,  in  1892,  it  consolidated  with  the 
Colorado  Fuel  Company,  controlled  by  Mr.  J.  C.  Osgood  and 
others,  and  thus  was  formed  the  Colorado  Fuel  and  Iron  Com- 
pany, which  has  grown  to  such  vast  dimensions.  J.  C.  Osgood 
was  its  first  president. 

But  to  return  to  the  railway .  By  the  close  of  '78  there  had  Lease  to 
been  constructed  373  miles  of  the  road.  Meanwhile  the  Santa  ^^^'^^  ^^  ^y- 
Fe,  our  rival  company,  had  pushed  up  the  Arkansas  to  Pueblo 
and  down  to  Trinidad,  thus  depriving  us  of  getting  any  of  the 
Santa  Fe  trade,  and,  what  with  the  general  depression  and  the 
difficulties  of  obtaining  capital  at  this  time,  the  company  was  in 
a  difficult  plight. 

Under  these  conditions,  we  decided  to  lease  our  completed 
lines  of  road  to  the  Santa  Fe  Company,  retaining  our  franchises 
and  extension  rights,  and  thus  ends  the  first  episode  of  the  rail- 
way. The  Santa  Fe  Company  took  possession  on  December  13th, 
1878. 

I  shall  now  give  a  brief  account  of  the  influence  which  the  LeadvUU 
great  mining  camp  of  Leadville  had  on  the  railroad  situation.  In 
the  summer  of  1877  I  well  remember  that  General  Palmer,  Mc- 
Murtrie,  our  chief  engineer,  and  I  rode  on  horseback  into  Oro, 
the  name  given  to  the  small  village  now  known  as  Leadville.  We 
found  Mr.  August  Meyer,  the  smelter  magnate,  superintending 
the  digging  of  the  foundation  of  the  first  smelter,  and  I  bought 
a  clump  of  dates  at  the  grocery  store  of  the  little  village,  which 
was  presided  over  by  H.  A.  W.  Tabor,  who  was  to.  become  noted 
soon  after  as  the  great  mining  millionaire. 

General  Palmer  realized  the  importance  of  the  mining  dis- 
coveries and  immediately  on  his  return  proceeded  with  his  plans 
to  recommence  railroad  construction  under  his  United  States 
charter.  He  began  active  operations  in  the  Raton  Pass,  where 
his  surveying  parties  found  the  Santa  Fe  Company  already  estab- 
lished. He  then  began  operations  from  Caiion  City  through  the 
Royal  Gorge,  and,  on  April  19,  1878,  his  men  came  into  conflict 
with  those  of  the  Santa  Fe,  and  thus  commenced  the  active  fight 
between  the  two  companies  for  right  of  way  through  the  canon, 
which  lasted  for  two  years. 

[7] 


Began 


The  contest  involved  wider  issues.  During  the  time  that  the 
Santa  Fe  operated  the  Denver  &  Rio  Grande,  it  operated  it  en- 
tirely in  the  interest  of  its  long  eastern  haul  and  to  the  detriment 
of  all  Colorado  interests,  so  that  public  opinion  was  strongly 
roused  on  behalf  of  the  old  company,  and  the  whole  controversy 
caused  the  greatest  excitement  throughout  the  state  and  in  the 
east. 
How  the  Tj^g  Santa  Fe  road  practically  barred  freight  coming  from 

Canon  FtgM  ^j^^  ^^g^  ^^^^  ^^iq  roads  centering  at  Denver,  intended  for  Pueblo 
and  southward,  by  charging  as  much  on  freight  from  Denver  to 
Pueblo  as  from  Kansas  City  to  Pueblo  over  the  Santa  Fe.  In 
fact,  ever  since  December  of  1878,  when  it  began  to  operate  the 
Rio  Grande  system  under  lease,  it  operated  it  in  the  most  arbi- 
trary manner.  Furthermore,  it  allowed  the  physical  condition 
of  the  road  to  run  down.  These  breaches  of  contract,  as  it  was 
claimed,  were  brought  before  Judge  Bowen,  the  judge  of  the 
State  District  Court,  at  Del  Norte,  which  had  jurisdiction  over 
the  territory  operated,  and  application  was  made  by  General 
Palmer  for  a  receiver  in  the  interests  of  the  bondholders.  The 
appeal  was  granted,  and  Hanson  A.  Risley  was  appointed  receiver, 
on  the  grounds  that  the  Santa  Fe  was  not  operating  the  road 
fairly  and  in  the  interests  of  the  bondholders,  and  that  they  were 
not  in  many  respects  acting  up  to  the  terms  of  the  lease.  The 
Santa  Fe  claimed  that  the  state  court  had  no  jurisdiction  and  re- 
fused to  turn  over  the  road  and  appealed  to  Judge  Hallett  of 
the  United  States  District  Court,  who,  on  May  8th,  1878,  decided 
that  the  prior  right  to  build  through  the  canon  rested  with  the 
San  Juan  Railway  Company,  a  local  corporation  representing 
for  present  purposes  the  Santa  Fe  Company.  In  anticipation  of 
such  action,  General  Palmer  had  marshaled  his  followers  and 
took  possession  of  the  road  by  force  and  turned  it  over  to  Risley, 
the  receiver  on  behalf  of  the  bondholders,  on  June  nth,  1879. 
On  the  Santa  Fe  appeal.  Judge  Hallett  decided  that  the  state 
court  had  no  jurisdiction,  and  on  July  i6th  the  railroad  was 
restored  to  the  Santa  Fe,  and  was  then  operated  by  the  Santa  Fe 
until  August  14th,  when  the  United  States  court  appointed  its 
own  receiver,  Mr.  L.  C.  Ellsworth,  who  took  charge  until  April 
5th,  1880,  when  it  was  restored  to  its  original  owners  under,  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court  decision  of  March  27th  of  that 
year. 

What  immediately  followed  the  Supreme  Court  decision  I 

[8] 


will  give  in  the  notes  kindly  furnished  me  by  Mr.  R.  F.  Weitbrec, 
who  was  then  general  manager  of  construction  and  was  one  of 
the  most  active  employees  of  the  company  during  all  this  troub- 
lous time: 

"News  of  the  Supreme  Court  decision  in  the  Royal  Gorge 
case  reached  Colorado  Springs  during  the  afternoon  of  the  day 
it  was  handed  down.  A  couple  of  days  later  General  Palmer 
started  for  New  York,  where  he  asked  for  five  million  dollars 
to  extend  the  road.  In  three  days  ten  millions  were  subscribed, 
of  which  he  accepted  seven.  How  different  from  the  former 
days,  when  it  took  a  year  or  more  of  the  hardest  work  to  raise  a 
million. 

"As  soon  as  the  Rio  Grande's  success  became  assured,  the 
Santa  Fe  manifested  a  willingness  to  settle.  After  more  or  less 
dickering  they  proposed  to  call  it  quits,  if  the  Rio  Grande  would 
pay  for  the  actual  cost  of  construction  west  of  Canon  City  and 
their  expenses  in  the  fight.  To  this  the  General  agreed,  and  in  a 
few  days  the  bargain  was  closed  on  that  basis  and  peace  reigned. 
The  market  was  booming;  General  Palmer  had  the  prestige  of 
success  in  the  great  fight,  and  during  the  ensuing  three  years 
he  raised  for  Colorado,  Utah  and  Mexican  enterprises  fifty  mill- 
ion dollars. 

"The  present  generation  has  little  conception  of  the  work 
done  by  General  Palmer.  It  is  apt  to  think  of  later  men  as  the 
builders  of  the  Rio  Grande.  The  road  is  his  monument.  Those 
who  followed  have  builded  on  the  foundation  he  laid.  His  work 
was  in  a  virgin  country  in  which  he  believed  as  few  men  are 
given  to  believe.  He  thought  and  acted  in  a  big  way.  He  was  an 
adroit  diplomat  when  negotiation  was  wise  and  he  was  an 
admirable  fighter  when  the  battle  was  on.  As  a  builder  he  was 
easily  the  leading  citizen  of  Colorado,  and  Colorado  Springs  can 
testify  to  his  public  spirit." 

The  terms  of  settlement  between  the  Rio  Grande  and  the 
Santa  Fe  are  as  follows : 

The  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  Company  agreed  for  ten 
years  not  to  build  through  any  portion  of  Colorado  west  of  the 
north  and  south  line  of  the  Denver  and  Rio  Grande  Railway 
(except  a  coal  road  to  their  coal  mines  near  Canon  City),  or 
in  that  portion  of  New  Mexico  north  of  the  36th  parallel  (ap- 
proximately), and  west  of  the  summit  of  the  Spanish  range; 
while  the  Denver  and  Rio  Grande  Company  agreed  for  the  same 

[91 


Terms  of 
Agreement 


period  not  to  build  in  Colorado  east  of  the  same  north  and  south 
line,  or  to  Trinidad,  or  in  that  part  of  New  Mexico  east  of  the 
Spanish  range  or  south  of  the  36th  parallel,  except  in  the  western 
part  of  New  Mexico. 


Further 
ConstruQion 


meral  Qrant's 
ViiU-1880 


But  to  resume  my  narrative  of  the  road.  From  December 
13th,  1878,  to  June  loth,  1879,  the  road  was  operated  by  the 
Santa  Fe;  from  June  nth  to  July  15th,  1879,  it  was  operated 
by  a  receiver  nominated  by  the  Denver  &  Rio  Grande ;  from  July 
1 6th  to  August  14th,  1879,  it  was  again  operated  by  a  receiver 
nominated  by  the  Santa  Fe;  from  August  15th,  1879,  to  April  4th, 
1880,  it  was  in  the  hands  of  a  receiver  appointed  by  the  court, 
and  not  until  April  5th,  1880,  did  the  company  resume  permanent 
possession. 

The  years  1880  and  1881  were  years  of  great  activity  in 
construction.  The  road  was  built  from  Canon  City  to  Leadville, 
117  miles,  by  July  20th,  1880;  to  the  Robinson  mine,  near  Ko- 
<komo,  16  miles,  by  December  27th ;  across  the  Tennessee  Pass  to 
Red  Cliff,  9.6  miles,  by  November  22nd ;  the  branch  to  Manitou, 
9  miles,  was  finished  August  ist,  and  the  New  Mexico  Division 
was  extended  from  Antonito  to  Espanola,  91  miles,  by  December 
31st,  besides  stone  and  coal  spurs,  11  miles;  in  all  347  miles. 
In  1 88 1  the  road  into  the  Wet  Mountain  Valley  was  built,  33 
miles,  and  the  San  Juan  Division  was  extended  westward  116 
miles.  At  the  close  of  '78  there  were  373  miles  of  constructed 
road ;  by  the  end  of  '82  there  were  1281  miles ;  by  December,  '83, 
1317  miles. 

Apart  from  railroad  extensions  1880  is  especially  memorable 
on  account  of  General  Grant's  visit  to  Colorado,  made  that  sum- 
mer. I  had  the  pleasure  of  taking  him  by  the  first  train  over  the 
little  road  to  Manitou  and  of  showing  him  at  Briarhurst,  my 
home,  the  well-known  painting  by  Thomas  Moran  of  the  Mount 
of  the  Holy  Cross,  which  I  had  just  purchased  as  a  memento  of 
our  Royal  Gorge  victory.  The  next  day  we  took  General  and 
Mrs.  Grant  over  the  road  to  Leadville,  just  completed.  We  were 
six  hours  late  (a  bridge  having  given  way  at  Pueblo),  and  did 
not  arrive  until  dark.  Leadville  was  alive  with  bonfires,  an 
escort  of  fifty  mounted  men  bearing  flaming  torches  was  pro- 
vided, and  dynamite  was  exploded  to  such  an  extent  that  Mrs. 
Grant  refused  to  sit  behind  the  four  restive  horses  which  were 

[10] 


to  draw  her  and  the  General  in  state  through  the  town,  so  that 
Mrs.  Bell  had  to  exchange  places  with  her.  I  saw  two  shanties 
onj  fire,  but  the  fire  brigade  was  in  the  procession  and  no  notice 
was  taken  of  them. 

Meanwhile  General  Palmer  was  vigorously  extending  the 
Rio  Grande  Western.  In  '82  he  constructed  154  miles;  in  '83, 
175  miles;  by  April  ist,  '83,  it  was  completed  to  Salt  Lake  City, 
and  by  May  i8th  to  Ogden.  The  Western  was  being  built  at  this 
time  as  the  extension  westward  of  the  Rio  Grande,  and  in  '82  it 
was  leased  to  that  road  under  the  Palmer  management,  only  to 
be  returned  to  its  original  owners  under  President  Love  joy  two 
years  later. 

The  prosperity  of  the  years  '80  and  '81  was  not  destined  to 
last.  It  was  followed  by  dull  times,  aggravated  by  strikes  and 
the  continued  depression  of  silver.  Money  had  been  spent  so 
rapidly  on  extensions  that  earnings  did  not  fully  meet  the  expec- 
tations of  the  New  York  capitalists.  They  complained  of  the 
management,  which  the  General  had  good  reason  to  resent.  He 
told  them  plainly  that  they  must  find  a  new  president,  as  they 
were  not  satisfied  with  his  management,  and  nothing  would  in- 
duce him  to  reconsider  that  decision,  although  the  dissatisfaction 
was  not  deeply  placed. 

Some  able  men  were  proposed  to  succeed  him,  but  they  were 
so  highly  prized  in  the  positions  they  occupied  that  negotiations 
to  secure  them  failed,  and  Mr.  Lovejoy  was  finally  chosen  in  a 
hurry,  having  proved  himself  a  good  manager  in  the  express 
business,  but  never  having  had  charge  of  a  great  railway  system. 

Towards  the  close  of  '82  several  new  eastern  men  joined  the 
board,  L.  H.  Meyer,  A.  J.  Cassett,  Wm.  L.  Scott  and  Peter 
Geddis,  replacing  myself,  who  had  been  the  vice  president  of  the 
company  for  nine  years,  Lyman  K.  Bass,  Hanson  A.  Risley  and 
J.  W.  Gilluly.  General  Palmer  resigned  the  following  year,  to 
be  succeeded  by  Frederick  Lovejoy. 

Poor  management  and  hard  times  soon  brought  the  com- 
pany to  temporary  insolvency,  and  Wm.  S.  Jackson  became  re- 
ceiver from  July  24th,  1885,  to  December  of  that  year,  when  he 
became  president  for  '86  and  '87,  after  which  Mr.  David  H. 
Moffat  assumed  the  management  of  the  company  and  retained 
the  presidency  until  1891-1892,  when  Edward  T.  JefTery  was 
appointed  and  has  practically  controlled  the  destinies  of  the  com- 
pany to  the  present  time.    Both  the  Denver  and  Rio  Grande  and 

[11] 


Western 
Extension 


Resignation  oj 
General  Palmer 


Resignation  of 
Dr.  Bell 
and  others 


Presidency  of 
Fredk.  Lovejoy 
1883-1885 


Wm.  S.  Jackson 
1885-1887 

Da\>id  H.  Moffat 
1887-1892 

and 

Edward  T.Jtffery 


the  Rio  Grande  Western  were  absorbed  into  the  Gould  system 
in  1901. 

I  cannot  close  this  address  without  a  few  words  about  some 
of  the  many  interesting  and  able  personalities  inseparable  from 
the  life  of  the  road  and  the  development  of  this  western  country. 

Early  Personnel  of  the  D.  &l  R.  G. 
and  R,  G.  W. 

Governor  A.  C.  Hunt,  United  States  marshal  in  1864  and 
afterwards  Governor  of  Colorado  Territory,  was  a  typical  fron- 
tiersman of  great  force  of  character.  He  was  full  of  humor  and 
a  great  man  of  action.  He  had  charge  of  the  land  department  of 
the  road. 

Colonel  William  H.  Greenwood  was  head  of  the  35th  par- 
allel surveys  in  1867  as  chief  engineer.  He  then  came  as  en- 
gineer of  the  Rio  Grande  for  a  short  time,  and  then  took  charge 
of  the  Mexican  National  surveys  in  Mexico,  where  he  was  mur- 
dered some  two  years  later. 

William  F.  Colton,  secretary  to  the  General  during  the 
Kansas  Pacific  survey,  remained  in  his  employ  and  subsequently 
passed  on  to  the  Rio  Grande  Western,  and  especially  was  at- 
tached to  the  coal  department  of  the  road,  or  rather  the  Utah 
Fuel  Company,  with  headquarters  at  Salt  Lake  City. 

Lyman  K.  Bass,  a  former  partner  in  Chicago  of  President 
Cleveland  and  a  most  able  lawyer,  became  our  general  counsel 
at  an  early  date,  and  Hanson  A.  Risley  did  our  legal  work  from 
the  first. 

W.  W.  Borst,  William  Wagner  and  Charles  B.  Lamborn 
were  with  us  in  the  early  days.  John  A.  McMurtrie  was  our 
chief  engineer  during  all  the  active  construction  of  the  road,  and 
R.  F.  Weitbrec  was  manager  of  construction.  William  S.  Jackson 
was  treasurer;  J.  W.  Gilluly,  cashier;  Andrew  Hughes  was 
freight  and  passenger  agent;  G.  W.  Kramer,  superintendent  of 
express;  George  Ristine,  assistant  to  the  manager,  and  last  I 
name  our  general  manager,  D.  C.  Dodge. 

I  think  I  may  say  without  question  that  D.  C.  Dodge,  after  a 
life  devoted  to  the  difficult  business  of  railroad  management, 

[12] 


stood  out  preeminently  as  the  greatest  and  best  railroad  manager 
that  Colorado  has  produced. 

In  June,  1865,  he  came  to  Denver  as  the  western  agent  of 
the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  Railroad  Company. 

In  1 87 1,  when  the  D.  &  R.  G.  opened  business  to  Colorado 
Springs,  he  became  the  first  general  freight  and  ticket  agent  of 
the  road.  From  1885  to  1888  he  spent  most  of  his  time  in  Mex- 
ico as  second  vice-president  and  general  manager  of  the  Mexican 
National  Railroad,  under  General  Palmer  as  president. 

In  1888  he  resigned  his  position  in  Mexico  and  resumed  the 
management  of  the  Rio  Grande  Western  system,  and  commenced 
the  improving  and  standard  gauging  of  the  track  between  Grand 
Junction  and  Ogden,  which  broad-gauging  was  completed  in 
June,  1890.  In  June,  1901,  the  R.  G.  W.  was  transferred  to  the 
D.  &  R.  G.,  followed  by  the  absorption  of  both  roads  into  the 
Gould  system  and  control.  Whilst  general  manager  of  the  D.  & 
R.  G.  Railroad  he  brought  that  system  up  to  a  high  state  of  effi- 
ciency. 

As  vice-president  and  general  manager  of  the  Rio  Grande 
Western  he  promoted  the  growth  and  development  of  the  great 
coal  industry  in  Utah,  and  was  actively  engaged  in  tapping  the 
important  copper  and  gold  mines  tributary  to  Salt  Lake  City 
and  in  enlarging  the  shops  there  when  the  Palmer  management 
terminated. 

Very  interesting  newspaper  articles  written  about  D.  C. 
Dodge  on  his  retirement  are  to  be  found  in  the  Rocky  Mountain 
News  of  June  25th,  1901,  and  the  Post  of  June  29th,  1901,  and 
of  the  Denver  Republican  of  May  24th,  191 1,  and  the  record  of 
an  interview  with  him  on  March  loth,  19 18,  held  at  the  request  of 
Judge  John  H.  Denison,  is  also  of  great  interest.  All  of  these  may 
be  found  in  the  Denver  Public  Library  under  the  classification 
numbers  C  P  B  D  66  and  B  P  385. 


[13] 


